Discovery Channel
by pinkconchshell
Summary: When Ron and Hermione buy a new TV, Ron becomes painfully aware of the problems muggles are facing. Rated T for 1 swearword. You don't have to review, just read it, and I'll feel a lot better about myself. Ron/Hermione fluff!


Discovery Channel

I own nothing. The interview is based on one with Thomas Morton.

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He didn't know that TV would be so time-consuming.

At first, Ron only wanted to buy one so that he could point and laugh at all the meaningless muggle shows, but an hour into installation, he was sitting about a foot away from the screen, his mouth open and his expression blank.

In seeing this, Hermione had stormed into the unfurnished sitting room, unplugged the TV, and proceeded to shout at Ron that watching TV like that would rot his brains, to which Ron had responded that the cartoons he was viewing couldn't do that to him; his brain was _inside_ his head. Hermione, unwilling to explain the details of LCD plasma waves to her uneducated lover, merely took matters into her own hands and proclaimed that if he was going to watch TV, it would have to be a channel that they both settled on.

So, five hours later saw them sitting comfortably in front of the sofa, Hermione holding an open book in her lap and Ron soaking up the joys of the seven o' clock news.

"…he wanted to get a firsthand account of the growing ecological catastrophe, so he headed out deep into the pacific."

A video clip was played, showing seawater glinting in the sunlight and sloshing on the sides of a white boat. A man with sunglasses and a Lakers hat was seen waving at the camera, his fair skin slightly tinged red from overexposure.

"The area that's polluted is estimated as double the size of Texas. It's a region of the ocean that's just completely infested with miniscule bits of plastic. It's like confetti with chunks of garbage that takes up the better part of the open water. There's identifiable pieces of trash like hockey sticks and coke bottles…"

"Hermione," Ron said, turning to look at her. Hermione, who was currently immersed in another one of her novels, merely said "hmm?" and didn't look up.

Ron was unabashed. "When did all this pollution start? I didn't know that the earth was so dirty, especially the ocean. Don't muggles have other places to put their trash?"

"Let me finish this, Ron," Hermione said, and Ron turned back to the TV. Conveniently enough, he hadn't been able to find the 'off' button for the last seven hours.

"The problem with plastic is that it doesn't biodegrade, it photodegrades. A process in which it is broken down by sunlight into smaller pieces, but they still remain plastics."

The camera switched to a young woman in a lab coat, standing in front of a poster of the Great Barrier Reef. She was wearing glasses, matched with a somber expression. In her hand was a jar filled with water, distilled with small, colorful shreds of plastic.

"There's a ratio of plastic/plankton rating at about six to one. That's roughly average. We pulled in samples that ranged from a thousand to one. It's like a film, hovering over the water. I came up from a dive and I actually had little chunks of plastic in my mouth."

"Are there any health issues that we should be concerned of? I read in your report that there was some kind of chain reaction with the fish-" a different voice than the one of the informant filtered into the picture.

"Yes," the woman said. "Like you said, it's a chain reaction, where the fish we eat consume the smaller species that actually resides around this area. There can be some cases of early onset diabetes from this, problems with the liver, kidneys, every major public health crisis that's hit the U.S in the last fifty years. We can see evidence of the exposure to the chemicals in this plastic in mice. Probably the scariest ones are the effects they can have on the reproductive system…"

The camera switched to an anchor sitting at his desk with a nonchalant expression. The careless way he read his lines disgusted Ron, and he leaned closer to the TV with a scowl on his face.

"Research suggests that eighty percent of the trash in the ocean comes from land and river run-offs, and the majority of that is just household and municipal waste. The problem is growing at an alarming rate."

"So, what do we do?" asked the reporter, holding out the microphone to the woman in the lab. For the first time, she seemed at a loss for words.

"What do we do?" she gave a nervous laugh. "Well, there's no quick fix, let me tell you that." The screen switched to a clip of the ocean waves, seemingly peaceful under the bright sunlight and blue sky.

"This is our entire world, and in order to start reconfigurating our society, we need to fix our habits so that we use less plastic and somehow dispose of our waste so that it doesn't remain in the ocean for years and years on end."

"Alright, Danielle, thank you for terrifying us, and for being on NCP live," said the anchor, and with that, they cut to commercial.

"Hermione," Ron shook her. "Hermione, are you done yet?"

Hermione sighed and set down her book The Humane Handbook: a Guide to Marine Biology, carefully folding down the corner of her page. She brushed a few stray hairs out of her face and looked at her fiancée expectantly.

"Alright, Ron, what is it that you wanted?" she asked in a tired voice.

"Did you see the interview?" he asked, and quickly realized what a dumb question it was. "Why didn't you tell me that pollution was such a problem? We're wizards, we could have done something, and now people are dying because of it…"

He trailed off, interrupted by a chuckle from Hermione. "Oh, Ron." She said, patting his hand. "Someone has yet to actually die of pollution. But you're right, the fish and plants out in the ocean are being killed off. It's a big problem, actually, they've been screaming about it for years."

"So, why hasn't anyone done anything?" Ron asked, feeling his temper rise.

"People have tried, believe me," Hermione said grimly. "There are groups of muggles who've dedicated their entire lives to try and clean up the ecosystem a bit."

"So why is it still so bad?" Ron said through gritted teeth.

"Because most of the world doesn't want to give up their ways and change for the better," Hermione sighed, looking out the window. "We're running out of places to put the trash, not to mention the global warming everyone's talking about-"

"Global warming?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The earth is heating up because of all the smog from cars and factories and the rainforests disappearing…but we'll get to that later," Hermione said hastily, seeing the darkened expression on his face.

"Don't the wizards know about this?!" Ron exclaimed, getting up and beginning to pace. "I mean, you would think, they keep track of everything that goes on, why doesn't the Ministry do something?"

"Actually, I don't think they know," Hermione said, looking thoughtful. "We use magic to Vanish all our trash, right? Well, since the muggles can't do that, they just slide it under the ground and dump it into the oceans and rivers. That's probably why the Ministry hasn't noticed anything suspicious."

"Well, let's go and do some Vanishing!" Ron roared, leaping up and grabbing his wand off the kitchen table. "Get yours, Hermione, go on. Where's my sister and her dammed husband? Somebody floo them-!"

"Ron, calm down!" Hermione said, putting an arm on his elbow. "Harry and Ginny just got back from their honeymoon, I don't think they really want anybody disturbing them yet. And Vanishing the muggles' trash for them won't help," she said softly, easing him back down onto the sofa.

Ron looked confused. "But why not?"

"On the day I turned seventeen," Hermione said reminiscently, "I tried to Vanish my trash can. It did not work." Here she laughed. "There's something about muggle waste that doesn't mix with magic. It has a kind of immunity to spells. The whole house was filled with black smoke for days, even when we opened all the windows, and the smell of rotten eggs was still there when I left." Hermione wrinkled her nose.

"But I thought Vanished objects went into nonbeing," Ron said frowning.

"Which is to say, everything," Hermione replied. "The trash never left, it just went into everything. And trust me, that's the last thing the muggles need. I don't think magic will be able to help them."

"Then what are we going to do?" Ron said helplessly. Hermione met his eyes.

"I never took you for an environmentalist, Ronald," she said gently. "We're getting married tomorrow, sweetheart, and you know that means that we'll be together for the rest of our lives. There's all that time in between to make a difference."

"We could start our own group. Environmental Protection Agency or something of the sort," Ron said, grinning.

"Someone's already thought of that," Hermione laughed, and without warning she took his hand in hers.

"There are things in this world that can't be done by magic, Ron." She said, looking up into his eyes. He could tell by the way their shade was darkened that she was dead serious. "Cleaning up the world isn't something that will happen with the wave of a wand. The muggles are smarter than you know; they'll find ways to help. Recycling has already made such a big difference in the pollution rates. Imagine what will happen as time goes by and they become more advanced!"

"So you're saying that it's not going to be easy filtering out the ocean?" Ron said glumly, his shoulders sagging.

"Or curing cancer, or patching up the ozone layer, or getting rid of all the space junk-"

"Space junk!?" Ron said, startled. "When did that happen?"

"Funny, that's what the astronauts said when they looked down," Hermione muttered, and ignored his question.

"The best thing to do, Ron, is to start right away," she said, handing him and empty plastic water bottle. The little droplets at the bottom swished around as Ron took it in his hand and raised it up to eye level. He looked at it, wondering why she gave it to him.

"What do I do with it?" he said, holding by the nozzle and extending it out at arms length like it were the cause of the world's pollution.

"Put it in a plastic trash bag," Hermione said, pointing to the newly tiled kitchen. "When you've filled it up, you take it to the recycling center, and they give you money for it. Then they send it to get cleaned or re-done or something, and they make a whole new bottle out of it. It's actually pretty amazing."

"You mean I can get money for trying to save the world?" Ron said, his face lighting up. The prospect of never having enough money had never really left his conscious, and he was always doing his hardest to earn every pound he could get. Although, being an Auror and working with THE Harry Potter had its advantages.

"Yes, Ron," Hermione said, looking amused. "You only earn about two pounds per bag, though, so don't plan on giving up your job and dedicating your life to recycling."

Ron looked sullen.

"Are your bags all packed, dear?" Hermione asked, letting go of his hand and walking to the bedroom that they would soon share. "After the wedding, we'll be Apparating to the Jamaican border, so you'll have to have everything ready right away, no last minute packing."

"Yeah, Mum got everything ready for me yesterday," Ron said, coming over to join her. "She said she felt so old, with her last little baby off to be married. I couldn't get her to stop crying."

"She's proud of you, you know," Hermione said happily, looping her arm through his. She looked up at him. "And so am I. I'm so impressed about how deeply you suddenly care about the world, Ron. It's people like you who can change the world with little, everyday actions."

"Hmph," said Ron, although he looked undoubtedly pleased. "And I always thought it was Harry who you hero-worshiped."

Hermione smacked him lightly on his head, and turned to go get ready for her bachelorette party. Ron watched her go, admiring the way her brown curls blazed mahogany in the twilight sun. For a minute, he wondered why it was so bright in the room, and then he noticed that the chandelier overhead was alight with a dozen bulbs. Ron stared at the light switch, (Hermione had insisted on getting electricity, assuring him that it was much more efficient) and slowly reached out his finger, pressing down on it so that the light was extinguished. Then, he followed his fiancée, picking up her abandoned book and sitting by the window to read.

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Author's note: Guys, the environment is probably deeper in the toilet than the American economy. The bad news is that this problem is international, and the pollution here can affect someone reading this in New Zealand or something. (Do they speak English there?) Anyway, there was a man who discovered an entire reef of trash a few weeks ago, and it's enormous. There are five of them in the world, one for each ocean. It's awful, and there are zero fish in the area because of all the garbage. We're suffocating ourselves in our own dirt. We can stop it, but it takes people like you to help make a difference. You have no idea just how effective recycling your empty water bottles can be. And is walking home from school really so awful? Turning off lights when you don't need them, and unplugging your chargers when you're not using them would be doing your kids and grandkids a really big favor. Everyone has to play their part to try and make the world a better place. Don't be selfish, think of how much happier we'll be when the environment flourishes again. The rainforests are being cut down, and the polar icecaps are melting, but just doing those things whenever you have the time could help the earth SO much. Now go ahead and save the world.


End file.
